Search results for: "thirdhand smoke"

Research published earlier this year by Berkeley Lab scientists in Biological Systems and Engineering Division (BSE) showing that exposure to thirdhand smoke was associated with low body weight and immune changes in young mice has recently received a flurry of renewed media attention. Antoine Snijders was interviewed via Skype for a segment that aired on New York’s Fox 5 News. In it, he noted that human infants and toddlers could potentially be at risk of exposure. “They play with toys, they play on carpets, there’s much more hand-to-mouth action than most adults do. So the exposure levels could be significantly higher in that age group,” he said. An article on USAToday.com quoted Bo Hang and Jian-Hua Mao. “We suspected that the young are most vulnerable because of their immature immune systems, but we didn’t have a lot of hard evidence to show that before,” Hang said. The study was also referenced on the blog Bustle which linked to the original Berkeley Lab News Center article.

Berkeley Lab researchers found that the sticky residue left behind by tobacco smoke led to changes in weight and blood cell count in mice. These latest findings add to a growing body of evidence that thirdhand smoke exposure may be harmful.

Researchers from the Biosciences Biological Systems and Engineering Division (BSE) and the Energy Technologies Area (ETA) teamed up with scientists at UC San Francisco and Nanjing Medical University for the study. The findings, reported in a Feb. 3 paper in Scientific Reports, suggest that the dangers associated with smoking continue long after the cigarette is snuffed out. Read more in the Berkeley Lab News Center.

An April 5 US News & World Report story on thirdhand smoke (THS), the toxic contamination that remains after the cigarette is extinguished, quoted Bo Hang, biochemist staff scientist in the Biological Systems & Engineering Division. Previous studies, led by Hang, have found that THS can damage DNA in human cells; subsequent animal studies by others have found that THS damages the liver and lungs, impedes the healing of wounds and can contribute to hyperactivity. Now, new research by Martins Green et al. published in PLOS ONE shows that, in mice, THS causes insulin resistance, a precursor to Type 2 diabetes. “This is a relatively new area,” says Hang, who continues to study the potential harmful effects of thirdhand smoke. Read the full story.

The research interests in my lab are primarily centered in the field of DNA damage and repair, particularly the identification and repair of novel and/or ...

A systems biology approach to identification of genetic networks controlling susceptibility to tumor development and progression induced by environmental ...